A survey to evaluate the implementation of a national clinical assessment form

Purpose: The Australian Universities Radiation Therapy Student Clinical Assessment Form (AURTSCAF) was designed to assess the clinical skills of radiation therapy (RT) students from the six universities that offer entry level RT programs. Given the AURTSCAF has now been in use for over two years, the Radiation Therapy Program Coordinators (RTPC) group initiated a post implementation evaluation survey. This formed the final phase of the AURTSCAF project and was funded by the Radiation Oncology Division of the Department of Health and Ageing. Methods: A cross-sectional designed survey using purposive sampling was distributed via email to all RT clinical sites. The survey asked questions about the requirements of a pass grade for students at different stages of their program, and the addition of a new category of assessment related to fitness to practise. Response types included both forced choice closed ended responses and open ended responses. There was also a section for open comments about the AURTSCAF. Results: There were 100 responses (55%) from clinicians who had utilised the assessment form over the previous 12 month period. Responses highlighted several positives with regard to the utility and implementation of the form. Comments regarding areas for improvement with the standardisation of the grading of students and consensus for the addition of a new domain in fitness for practise have informed the recommended changes proposed for 2012. Conclusion: This evaluation has provided a representative sample of the views of clinicians involved in assessing students on clinical placement. Recommendations include the addition of the sixth domain of assessment: Fitness for practise, the addition of descriptors and prompts for this domain in the user guide, the addition of a consensus statement about the use of the rating scale and dissemination of the proposed changes nationally.

Development and implementation of the Australian universities radiation therapy student clinical assessment form

Purpose: Prior to 2009, one of the problems faced by radiation therapists who supervised and assessed students on placement in Australian clinical centres, was that each of the six Australian universities where Radiation Therapy (RT) programmes were conducted used different clinical assessment and reporting criteria. This paper describes the development of a unified national clinical assessment and reporting form that was implemented nationally by all six universities in 2009. Methods: A four phase methodology was used to develop the new assessment form and user guide. Phase 1 included university consensus around domains of student practice and assessment, and alignment with national competency standards; Phase 2 was a national consensus workshop attended by radiation therapists involved in student supervision and assessment; Phase 3 was an action research re-iterative Delphi technique involving two rounds of a mail-out to gain further expert consensus; and stage 4 was national piloting of the developed assessment form. Results: The new assessment form includes five main domains of practice and 19 sub-domain criteria which students are assessed against during placement. Feedback from the pilot centre participants was positive, with the new form being assessed to be comprehensive and complemented by the accompanying user guide. Conclusion: The new assessment form has improved both the formative and summative assessment of students on placement, as well as enhancing the quality of feedback to students and the universities. The new national form has high acceptance from the Australian universities and has been subject to wide review by the profession.

Development and psychometric properties of the DCDDaily: a new test for clinical assessment of capacity in activities of daily living in children with developmental coordination disorder

Objective To develop the DCDDaily, an instrument for objective and standardized clinical assessment of capacity in activities of daily living (ADL) in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and to investigate its usability, reliability, and validity. Subjects Five to eight-year-old children with and without DCD. Main measures The DCDDaily was developed based on thorough review of the literature and extensive expert involvement. To investigate the usability (assessment time and feasibility), reliability (internal consistency and repeatability), and validity (concurrent and discriminant validity) of the DCDDaily, children were assessed with the DCDDaily and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 Test, and their parents filled in the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 Checklist and Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire. Results 459 children were assessed (DCD group, n = 55; normative reference group, n = 404). Assessment was possible within 30 minutes and in any clinical setting. For internal consistency, Cronbach’s α = 0.83. Intraclass correlation = 0.87 for test–retest reliability and 0.89 for inter-rater reliability. Concurrent correlations with Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 Test and questionnaires were ρ = −0.494, 0.239, and −0.284, p < 0.001. Discriminant validity measures showed significantly worse performance in the DCD group than in the control group (mean (SD) score 33 (5.6) versus 26 (4.3), p < 0.001). The area under curve characteristic = 0.872, sensitivity and specificity were 80%. Conclusions The DCDDaily is a valid and reliable instrument for clinical assessment of capacity in ADL, that is feasible for use in clinical practice.

Preliminary clinical assessment of polyvinyl alcohol-tetrahydroxyborate hydrogels as potential topical formulations for local anesthesia of lacerations

The aim of this study was to assess a novel semisolid material as a potential topical drug delivery system for acute laceration. The objectives were to correlate physical characterization data using rheologic studies and to compare with clinical assessment of performance in an emergency department (ED).

Diagnosing pulmonary embolism in outpatients with clinical assessment, D-dimer measurement, venous ultrasound, and helical computed tomography: a multicenter management study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate a diagnostic strategy for pulmonary embolism that combined clinical assessment, plasma D-dimer measurement, lower limb venous ultrasonography, and helical computed tomography (CT). METHODS: A cohort of 965 consecutive patients presenting to the emergency departments of three general and teaching hospitals with clinically suspected pulmonary embolism underwent sequential noninvasive testing. Clinical probability was assessed by a prediction rule combined with implicit judgment. All patients were followed for 3 months. RESULTS: A normal D-dimer level (&lt;500 microg/L by a rapid enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) ruled out venous thromboembolism in 280 patients (29%), and finding a deep vein thrombosis by ultrasonography established the diagnosis in 92 patients (9.5%). Helical CT was required in only 593 patients (61%) and showed pulmonary embolism in 124 patients (12.8%). Pulmonary embolism was considered ruled out in the 450 patients (46.6%) with a negative ultrasound and CT scan and a low-to-intermediate clinical probability. The 8 patients with a negative ultrasound and CT scan despite a high clinical probability proceeded to pulmonary angiography (positive: 2; negative: 6). Helical CT was inconclusive in 11 patients (pulmonary embolism: 4; no pulmonary embolism: 7). The overall prevalence of pulmonary embolism was 23%. Patients classified as not having pulmonary embolism were not anticoagulated during follow-up and had a 3-month thromboembolic risk of 1.0% (95% confidence interval: 0.5% to 2.1%). CONCLUSION: A noninvasive diagnostic strategy combining clinical assessment, D-dimer measurement, ultrasonography, and helical CT yielded a diagnosis in 99% of outpatients suspected of pulmonary embolism, and appeared to be safe, provided that CT was combined with ultrasonography to rule out the disease.

Personalized 3D reconstruction of the rib cage for clinical assessment of trunk deformities

Scoliosis is a 3D deformity of the spine and rib cage. Extensive validation of 3D reconstruction methods of the spine from biplanar radiography has already been published. In this article, we propose a novel method to reconstruct the rib cage, using the same biplanar views as for the 3D reconstruction of the spine, to allow clinical assessment of whole trunk deformities. This technique uses a semi-automatic segmentation of the ribs in the postero-anterior X-ray view and an interactive segmentation of partial rib edges in the lateral view. The rib midlines are automatically extracted in 2D and reconstructed in 3D using the epipolar geometry. For the ribs not visible in the lateral view, the method predicts their 3D shape. The accuracy of the proposed method has been assessed using data obtained from a synthetic bone model as a gold standard and has also been evaluated using data of real patients with scoliotic deformities. Results show that the reconstructed ribs enable a reliable evaluation of the rib axial rotation, which will allow a 3D clinical assessment of the spine and rib cage deformities.

Noninvasive Clinical Assessment of Trunk Deformities Associated With Scoliosis

Besides the spinal deformity, scoliosis modifies notably the general appearance of the trunk resulting in trunk rotation, imbalance, and asymmetries that constitutes patients' major concern. Existing classifications of scoliosis, based on the type of spinal curve as depicted on radiographs, are currently used to guide treatment strategies. Unfortunately, even though a perfect correction of the spinal curve is achieved, some trunk deformities remain, making patients dissatisfied with the treatment received. The purpose of this study is to identify possible shape patterns of trunk surface deformity associated with scoliosis. First, trunk surface is represented by a multivariate functional trunk shape descriptor based on 3-D clinical measurements computed on cross sections of the trunk. Then, the classical formulation of hierarchical clustering is adapted to the case of multivariate functional data and applied to a set of 236 trunk surface 3-D reconstructions. The highest internal validity is obtained when considering 11 clusters that explain up to 65% of the variance in our dataset. Our clustering result shows a concordance with the radiographic classification of spinal curves in 68% of the cases. As opposed to radiographic evaluation, the trunk descriptor is 3-D and its functional nature offers a compact and elegant description of not only the type, but also the severity and extent of the trunk surface deformity along the trunk length. In future work, new management strategies based on the resulting trunk shape patterns could be thought of in order to improve the esthetic outcome after treatment, and thus patients satisfaction.